A soft-serve margarita at Doña Leti’s, a Tex-Mex restaurant in Houston, Texas. The chain was the first in both city and state to introduce the ice cream-variety of the alcoholic drink, and it’s soon transcended from a curiosity to a stable revenue stream and tequila concoction of choice for some.
Doña Leti’s/Courtesy to Chron
For decades, Texas has only known two kinds of margaritas: the ones that are frozen and the ones that are not. The rule of two was challenged earlier this year by the arrival of the soft-serve margarita. The tequila-infused ice cream had somehow married nostalgic and creamy soft serve with the seemingly impossible-to-freeze alcoholic beverage.
Everything about the soft-serve margarita feels like a fad and yet, it continues to persist. More Houston-area restaurants and bars have purchased the machinery to add the margaritas to their menus. So much so that it would seem the binary Tex-Mex tradition is now becoming a three-part canon.
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A soft-serve margarita at Doña Leti’s, a Tex-Mex restaurant in Houston, Texas. The chain was the first in both city and state to introduce the ice cream-variety of the alcoholic drink, and it’s soon transcended from a curiosity to a stable revenue stream and tequila concoction of choice for some.
Doña Leti’s/Courtesy to Chron
It was back in March when Houstonians first caught wind of the soft-serve margarita. The concoction was seen in Cleveland, Ohio, and had started to spread around different restaurants nationwide.
Kalli King Lozano, co-owner and COO of popular Houston Tex-Mex restaurant Doña Leti’s, told Chron they were the first restaurant to get a working soft-serve margarita machine up and running both in Houston and in Texas. Lozano said she and her partners were bullish about the ice cream because it fit so well with their restaurant concept, which places Tex-Mex in a party environment with strong drinks and brightly colored dining rooms.
“They’re fun, they’re visually exciting, and they give people something they may not have tried anywhere else before,” Lozano said. “We’ve had people travel from all over the country and the state to try them, and it’s been so exciting for us as a business to try something new and see how well people have taken to it.”
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Soft-serve products at Happy Go Lucky in Houston, Texas. The soft-serve margarita has fast become a fixture in the city’s dining scene. So much so, it may even be tradition.
Happy Go Lucky/Courtesy to Chron
Doña Leti’s may have been the first to market, but they weren’t the first to notice the soft-serve margarita’s potential. Matthew Pak, executive chef of the Taco Stand and the Burger Joint with several concepts in the Houston Heights, saw the alcoholic dessert as a worthwhile addition to their shaved ice stand Happy Go Lucky.
All of their soft-serve margaritas, Pak said, are made from scratch with no pre-made mix and their own fruits.
“We realized that it fit our concept really well, and it was a hit right from the beginning,” Pak said. “Right now, they compete really well with the shaved ice, which is our main thing at Happy Go Lucky.”
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Simply, the soft-serve margarita is a boozy ice cream with a flavor not that much sweeter than a regular margarita. Unlike the blended variety, this can’t be siphoned down your gullet with a straw. It necessitates a spoon.
How the soft-serve margarita has evolved already
A soft-serve margarita at Doña Leti’s, a Tex-Mex restaurant in Houston, Texas. The chain was the first in both city and state to introduce the ice cream-variety of the alcoholic drink, and it’s soon transcended from a curiosity to a stable revenue stream and tequila concoction of choice for some.
Doña Leti’s/Courtesy to Chron
The machines that make the soft-serve (Illinois-based Taylor Commercial Foodservice is a popular manufacturer of the machines) are large and complex. Pak said his are roughly five feet from the ground and have four compressor units inside. But that added girth allows for more customization. Operators can adjust for texture and viscosity depending on what’s put into the machine.
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Already, the soft-serve has undergone different tweaks and transformations. Lozano said Doña Leti’s has experimented with different flavors, including peach bellini and lemon drop martini. The restaurant group has also created a soft-serve mimosa. At Happy Go Lucky, Pak said they’ve adjusted to demand. The menu includes soft-serve mango and blackberry margaritas as well as soft-serve piña coladas and daiquiris.
And the demand has yet to slow down. At Doña Leti’s, Lozano said they’ve seen customers come from across Texas to try out their margaritas. Pak said the soft-serve machines have paid for themselves. The margaritas have become their own revenue stream and now compete with shaved ice, Happy Go Lucky’s main product.
“Once we added them to the Taco Stand, it didn’t even cut into our frozen margarita sales,” Pak said. “I think they’re here to stay. It’s a great option outside of just frozen margaritas. People love ice cream.”
A promotional display for soft-serve margaritas at Kanga’s Indoor Playcenter in Atascocita, Texas. This particular variety is made with wine versus tequila because of TABC restrictions and certifications.
John-Henry Perera/Chron
The staying power and spread of the soft-serve margarita was made no more apparent during a visit to a Kanga’s indoor play center in suburban Atascocita. Between the giant gym sets and rocking sail ship ride, tables had small displays advertising the product. Eric and Megan Styron own the business and said they added the ice cream during the summer to catch the hype train.
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“We did it as a big summer promotion, and we really try to cater to kids and their parents because we know the parents are going to be sitting around and watching their kids play,” Eric said. “We wanted them to come back.”
Eric said they sold around 108 soft-serve margaritas in June and July. They flipped the Vevor-made machine back into a non-alcoholic soft-serve ice cream, but he may flip it again. The Kanga’s version uses a wine-based mix instead of a tequila one because of the TABC certifications—and their associated costs. Styron said their current wine and malt beverage permit cost Kanga’s $2,000. The mixed beverage permit, which would allow tequila, would cost $5,300 plus an annual $2,650 renewal.
“That’s a lot of upkeep for having bartenders and all your liquors,” he said “I didn’t want to go that far into the deep end. We’re still a kids play center.”
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